Tourism is New Zealand’s biggest export industry (Cropp, 2015), and therefore, tourism strategy is key in ensuring that the nation’s economy is flourishing. Between 2001 and today, NZ has released three tourism strategy documents – set to look forward to 2010, 2015, and most recently, 2025. Each document aims to update the previous one, looking at the strengths and weaknesses of the past and modifying these in order to keep up with the ever-changing environment. This essay compares and contrasts the 2015 and 2025 strategy plans – looking specifically at their vision statements, their approach to visitor satisfaction, each strategies’ contributors and what impact this has, and how each strategy addresses marketing. These four main points will
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This can also be attributed to the environment in which tourism was operating in at the time of the documents creation – the Global Financial Crisis had since hit New Zealand, and tourism’s contribution to the GDP (in relation to other industries) had declined (TIANZ, 2014). While the environment was still an important aspect, the newly appointed National Government saw a stronger need to focus on the economy, and ensuring that tourism’s revenue began to improve again. The document has been described by one of its main contributors as “unashamedly focused on growth” (B. Bassett, personal communication, August 15, 2056), and aimed to restore tourism as New Zealand’s top export industry – a feat which was achieved in 2015 (Cropp, 2015). Currently, New Zealand is ahead of schedule in achieving this vision. While this is progressive, it also has its negative impacts – for one, NZ’s infrastructure is struggling to keep up with growth (Hon. P. Bennett, personal communication, April 6, 2016). As growth is happening faster than expected, there is also less time for the industry to expand the infrastructure to deal with increased visitor numbers. These issues could lead to goals becoming unrealistic on a national scale – though some local regions will suffer more than others as a result of …show more content…
In the case of the 2015 strategy, the contributors were Tourism New Zealand, the Tourism Industry Association (TIANZ), and the Ministry of Tourism. There was also small contribution from relevant industry stakeholders when necessary (TIANZ, 2007), however the industry provided very limited contribution on the direction of the document. It was the Ministry Policy Team itself that wrote the vast majority of the strategy (R. Salter, personal communication, April 8, 2016). The lack of industry input has a huge impact on the tourism industry at a national level. Because the tourism industry was not directly consulted, there may have been reluctance from tourism businesses to work hard to achieve the goals set out in the document. An industry that is invested and involved in a strategy is more likely to put actions into place to meet these strategy goals, than one that may have a different opinion on where the industry should be
This can also be attributed to the environment in which tourism was operating in at the time of the documents creation – the Global Financial Crisis had since hit New Zealand, and tourism’s contribution to the GDP (in relation to other industries) had declined (TIANZ, 2014). While the environment was still an important aspect, the newly appointed National Government saw a stronger need to focus on the economy, and ensuring that tourism’s revenue began to improve again. The document has been described by one of its main contributors as “unashamedly focused on growth” (B. Bassett, personal communication, August 15, 2056), and aimed to restore tourism as New Zealand’s top export industry – a feat which was achieved in 2015 (Cropp, 2015). Currently, New Zealand is ahead of schedule in achieving this vision. While this is progressive, it also has its negative impacts – for one, NZ’s infrastructure is struggling to keep up with growth (Hon. P. Bennett, personal communication, April 6, 2016). As growth is happening faster than expected, there is also less time for the industry to expand the infrastructure to deal with increased visitor numbers. These issues could lead to goals becoming unrealistic on a national scale – though some local regions will suffer more than others as a result of …show more content…
In the case of the 2015 strategy, the contributors were Tourism New Zealand, the Tourism Industry Association (TIANZ), and the Ministry of Tourism. There was also small contribution from relevant industry stakeholders when necessary (TIANZ, 2007), however the industry provided very limited contribution on the direction of the document. It was the Ministry Policy Team itself that wrote the vast majority of the strategy (R. Salter, personal communication, April 8, 2016). The lack of industry input has a huge impact on the tourism industry at a national level. Because the tourism industry was not directly consulted, there may have been reluctance from tourism businesses to work hard to achieve the goals set out in the document. An industry that is invested and involved in a strategy is more likely to put actions into place to meet these strategy goals, than one that may have a different opinion on where the industry should be